First order of business, our contest winners for last week: Veronica Johnson and Susan Craig. Congratulations, ladies. Your signed books are on their way to you as we speak. A new round is underway; all you need to do is comment, and you’re entered. Two winners will be chosen at random, notified by Jenni, and announced right here. Each will receive an autographed book.

Now, to tell you about our recent adventure. Last Tuesday, at 4 pm, as a major windstorm picked up speed, our power went out. By ‘our’, I mean the main house, Mary Ann and Larry’s place, and the barn. Since we live in the country, we depend on well water and, without electricity, the pumps don’t work. Since such outages are not uncommon, we didn’t panic. We ate cold suppers and went to our various beds, certain the lights and heat would be on by morning.

Not so much. For health reasons, Mary Ann needs to be in a place where she can plug in. Where else to go but the casino? It has a very nice hotel and, since I love to play slot machines, I have comp. points up the yingy. I called, and we wound up in a suite, mind you, complete with a jacuzzi, smart TVs, and just about the cushiest mattresses EVER. We were among the lucky ones, no doubt about it. We stayed two nights in the suite, then moved to another room, when the first reservation ran out. Early Saturday morning, I checked my email and there, glory be, was a one-word message from our neighbor, sent late the night before. It read simply, “Power!”

Yeehaws resounded. I cancelled our remaining night’s reservation–hotel rooms were scarce indeed in Spokane–and headed for home. My kitty-boys, well taken care of in my absence but certainly lonesome, were thrilled to see me. (The horses were looked after, too–when their troughs got low, Handyman Doug bought fifty gallon water containers, filled them, and hauled them out here.) At least, Button, the 20 year old, issues a rousing welcome, talking a mile a minute. Wiki was a little standoffish for a while. Seriously, Mom? You had to be gone this long?

Sounds like y’all had one amazing adventure. Glad the casino hotel was an option for you and Mary Ann. It totally sucks when you lose electric, especially when health problems are present. I live in the country and can totally understand the inconvenience. Definitely been there.

Gracious, Linda! What a thing to happen, but you are BLESSED to be able to take care of it…in a fun way. Most of us aren’t that Blessed, so we all need all the prayers we can get for the ending of this year and the beginning of next.

But, we all have lots to be THANKFUL for in this Thanksgiving week, and every day of the year.

That stinks when the power goes out. You never realize how much you depend on it until you don’t have it. Glad it is back on for you and hopefully you are back in the good graces of your kitties.
Rhonda Dickinson

Dang, you always have an adventure to tell us about, even when you are not writing. We live in the country too and I know how those power outages can be. We don’t have a casino nearby though. Thanks for the post.

Wasn’t it an exciting week! I just kept reminding myself that it still wasn’t as bad as ice storm… which ironically fell in the same week in 1996! During ice storm I had 2 little girls and an infant son, but we were blessed that we didn’t loose power, water or cable… unfortunately, we weren’t as blessed this time around, as we did loose power…. but my then 2 little girls are now grown with children of their own and my infant son is off to college, which left me with my youngest who is now 17. I was blessed to be given shelter with my dearest love and my son and his buddy who lives with us were staying with friends of theirs as well… the hardest part of it was being apart from the boys, but we did get together each day to share a meal, a loving hug and to care for our animals… I finally made it home after 5 days of enjoying my lovely friend’s company and hospitatlity~ I am praying for the safety of those still without power.

As a native Washingtonian, but now living in Southern AZ, I am always looking for news from home. So glad you were able to find such good accommodations, and hopefully you won a little money to make it even sweeter.

Congratulations to this week’s winners, and Happy Thanksgiving to all!

So sorry to here about your power but it sounds like you got the best of things out of it. I hate being without power and it doesn’t happen often here but its bad when it does go out. My kitty is poutting because he wants to go outside. He slipped out on me the other night when it was 20 degrees outside and I like to have never got him back in. He is still a kitten and I don’t think he should be out in the cold.

Hi Linda,
Sorry to hear your area lost power. That can be VERY inconvenient. Sounds as if your time at the casino helped to ease this bad situation and you had a good time to boot! Have you considered getting a generator or two. My ex and I had a small one and it really came in handy to run a few things such as the furnace, refrigerator and a couple of lights. We even loaned it to our local bank once. The bosses loved us, the employees not so much . Just something you might want to investigate.
Take care and thanks for sharing your gift of writing. Love your books.
~~~ Beverly Sivacek

Hi. Glad you got power back. No fun not having power. Went through that in Preston, Ct one year in September when a hurricane came through. Think it was in 1987. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. God Bless You Always. Mary